After months of an often-divisive community debate, the Southland School Board on Monday voted unanimously to close its elementary school located in Rose Creek.

The elementary students will be brought to the Adams campus, with the site becoming a K-12 facility after the 2018-2019 school year.

The board will now meet to start discussing a building referendum and address options for Adams, although how a project would look has yet to be decided. While remodeling the Adams campus is one idea, another option — building a new school — was mentioned Monday night. A $24.5 million building referendum that would have remodeled the Adams campus for a K-12 facility failed in 2017.

The board on Monday also agreed to engage a company to help conduct a predictive survey on what the community might approve in a new referendum, tentatively planned for a vote in November.

But if anyone thought the decision to close the Rose Creek school was easy, all you had to do was watch the face of Chairwoman Michelle Nelsen.

It took Nelsen more than a few beats to bring her voice under control as tears streamed down her face when the vote was taken.

She wasn’t alone. Others on the board struggled to keep emotions in check as the resolution was passed.

But it was a move that had to be taken, all agreed.

“It’s a step in a direction we feel is important for solvency for the next 100 years,” Nelsen said after the meeting.

A handful of community members spoke both in favor and against the move earlier in the meeting. The arguments were familiar to those who had attended recent meetings.

Those against the move worried about how the loss of the school would impact the small Rose Creek community. Others wondered about whether the numbers estimating financial decline were accurate – especially those that referred to reimbursement for the district’s consortium that supports special needs students. Some believe the reimbursement estimates were not being reflected correctly in expense projections.

“We need to slow down to make sure of those numbers,” said Brian Felton.

But board member Wayne Kiefer took to a white board to discuss the issue, noting that reimbursements varied not only in percentage for each student, but varied widely in overall cost since students — and their needs — changed from year to year.

Others spoke in favor of the closure, noting that other schools have combined into one building for the same issues facing Southland.

“There is Spring Valley, Hayfield,” said Rod Sprau of Elkton, adding he was not worried about having younger and older students under the same roof. “K-12 works.” He and Randy Stephenson of Dexter asked that people trust the board to do what was right.

Still others wanted to wait to do anything.

One anonymous letter writer, identifying herself as only “Grandma,” asked the board to wait 10 years before making a decision.

“Grandma, I am sorry, but we don’t have 10 years,” said board member Patti Hamilton, referring to the declining enrollment that threatens to drain the district’s general fund balance unless costs are saved. District officials estimate that over $510,000 would be saved with the closing of the Rose Creek school in staff, transportation and operational costs. Another $1.6 million in needed work in the Rose Creek facility has been deferred over the years.

If operational costs aren’t saved, the board said the district is in danger of being in statutory operating debt within five years. That, in turn, could trigger state intervention and control of operations.

The district has lost a significant number of students in the past 10 years, Nelsen said. In 2008-2009, the district had 560 students. That number has continued to shrink; this year, 409 students attend Southland schools.

Already, she said, “we have lost what we hold dear,” such as art instruction, and staff that has not been hired back after lay-offs, resulting in larger class sizes. If something is not done, costs would have to be saved by cutting at least eight instructors, she said.

“I hear people saying we should ‘hold on’ a year, five years,” she said. What people forget or don’t realize, is that “hanging on” has already meant cutting important programs and people, she said.

In a related issue, Kiefer said that someone from Dexter had approached him to say that he would donate land to the school district if the district decided to build a new school. He would withdraw the gift, however, if a school was not built.

Nelsen said after the meeting that the board had received petitions asking for a new school, but that option had yet to be discussed among board members.

A facilities meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on April 23 to open discussion on a future project.